Clever and beautiful constructions, bigger than two chunks
- Defense: killing biters as an art
- Castles, Throne Rooms, Decorations (comfortable living in the Factorio World)
- Main Bus Concepts
- Modular Systems, Factory Streets, show how all works together
- Megabases
Please provide us with blueprints or saves, if that makes sense of course.

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Clever and beautiful constructions, bigger than two chunks

- Defense: killing biters as an art
- Castles, Throne Rooms, Decorations (comfortable living in the Factorio World)
- Main Bus Concepts
- Modular Systems, Factory Streets, show how all works together
- Megabases
Please provide us with blueprints or saves, if that makes sense of course.

I play this game not so long ago, somewhere from September-October 2018.
I want to tell you a little about the "scalability" of this game in relation to computer hardware
I recall the minimum requirements:
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista (64 Bit)
Processor: Dual core 3Ghz +
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 512MB Video Memory
Storage: 1 GB available space
Additional Notes: Low sprite resolution and Low VRAM usage.

In the early stages of the game, in my humble opinion, IMHO,
just a little less is enough.
I have access to several computers (5-10), started to play on the configuration
Processor: Dual core 3Ghz + (775 socket), Memory: 3 GB RAM (DDR 2), Win7-64
Over time, the game map gradually increased, FPS / UPS went down.
First I increased the memory up to 4 GB, and then I replaced the processor with a Quad core, but over time it was no longer enough, especially the memory, the game loading time was indecently large, from several TENS minutes to an hour, and the record was up to TWO! hours These are real numbers.
The processor did not cope with packing and writing a zip file)
But at the same time, the same game preservation worked quite comfortably on another computer - Quad core 4Ghz + (771 socket) + 6 GB RAM (DDR 2), Win7-64
Subsequently, and it began to "slow down", increased the amount of memory to a maximum of 4x2 GB RAM.
The memory bars of the DDR2 are only 2GB maximum, comrades from China of course make 4 GB modules, and I even tried this one, but it does not work, it was not lucky. )))))))))
Next computer reincarnation only! for the game in Factoryio was collected the following:
Processor: Dual core 3,3Ghz G4400 (1151 socket), Memory: 8 GB RAM (DDR 4), Win7-64 on an SSD disk on a simple motherboard on a b110 chipset.
The processor is of course very weak, and soon it was replaced by intel Core I5-6400 non K with 2700 MHz and without the possibility of overclocking: ((
For some time this configuration was enough, but the volume of the game map grew continuously, and soon this was not enough
Let me remind you, the motherboard is the simplest, with two memory slots, I had 2x4GB
Well, I purchased 8GB, I replaced one module, 8 + 4, 12 GB became
Still enough for a while
The next dilema was what to buy - another 8GB or?
I purchased a 16 GB memory module. With the previous 8 GB in total, it was 24 GB (2 modules of 4 GB per box until better times)
When the size of the saved zip file reached about 600 MB
FPS / UPS began to sink again: (((
First, a little - 48, then 40, then for a long time was 30-32, but sometimes it fell to indecent 28 and less
And this is with 24GB of memory and a 4-core processor, which in burst should have worked at 3.3 GHz.
Sadness (sadly) ..
But that's not all )
Since I did not stop playing, the size of the MAP increased, FPS / UPS fell, then I got another dilemma )
It was possible to add more memory, for example, another 16GB, but here the game apparently rested in processor performance.
Yes, it was possible to change the CPU processor to some more productive one, for example, to Core I7, although this is also not cheap: (((
And note, all for one game))
I went "the other way", as one of the leaders of the proletariat used to say
I changed the unpretentious motherboard for the luxury version of Asus Hero VIII !!!!!!!!
That was two weeks ago.
What I have now, the current configuration
Processor: Quad core 2.7Ghz I5-6400 non K @ 4100 GHz, Memory: 32 GB RAM (DDR 4) (16 + 8 + 4 + 4), Win7-64 on an SSD disk
Of course, the processor can be further accelerated, for example, up to 4.5 Ghz, possibly higher, up to 5, but so far the overclocking has rested on cooling, which is why it is so small. But at the same time, FPS / UPS = 60 and no lags
In the future, when all the same FPS / UPS subsides / falls, I will be able to overclock the processor, well, in extreme cases, increase the memory to 64 GB ))))))))))

Well, now actually some screenshots from the game, with explanations.

techinfo.png (181.77 KiB) Viewed 797 times

Some technical information.
On the left table, the size of the paging file, depending on the size of RAM
I did tests on the same file with different memory sizes, if anyone is interested, then factorio-current.log is for each test.
Below is a CPU-Z window with processor information. Next to it is the Task Manager window, which shows the current total memory and the game currently being used
At the top right you can see the size of the zip files, the current state of saving the game.
test0105.zip is on it I conducted tests with different memory sizes
As you can see the current file is already more than a gigabyte, and this is not the limit)

basa.png (352.76 KiB) Viewed 797 times

This is my main base.
Neatly lined with paving slabs)
On the left there are 3 modular reactors, each with 8 cores, totaling 3x1.2 = 3.6 Gw at the maximum, but they were no longer enough, therefore, a little further)) another 1.2 and one spare for 1.2GW were built

Arsenal_4.png (2.59 MiB) Viewed 797 times

In this screenshot, my second base with two modular reactors and a huge ammunition manufacturing plant)
Located at around 100,000
Slightly smaller storage of shells is on the main base, and at around 17,000

p.s. I wanted to hide pictures under spoiler, but something didn’t work

Arsenal_5.png (1.91 MiB) Viewed 794 times

This is a warehouse of shells at around 200,000, I hope you can see the coordinates in the upper left
(Yes, the same storage / warehouse at 17,000)

res.png (353.7 KiB) Viewed 793 times

These are my achievements, the range of fire of guns (4 m) is especially well pumped,
damage by laser turrets (4m) and field productivity (+ 1120%)
On the left you can see iron deposit 2,5G

Now I will tell my current goal)
Everyone has their own, someone has the longest eats builds, someone has the largest nuclear reactor at 100,500 GW, someone at 50,000 satellites per second launches)
(by the way, I have a little more than 30,000 satellites of all launched)
Someone from sports interest with mods and on a lightweight map, as I understand it, without living creatures, reached the edge of the map.
So here. I have generated the most standard vanilla map, not a single digit has been changed. And the game is vanilla, not a single mod! ) Livestock respawn as it should be, water spaces no less than normal. Landfill has already used 100,500 million tons. Joke. Maybe more))
In general, the most standard map, by the way, I play on version 16.51, but as you can see at 17.56 it also works quite well, only the animals are more aggressive, but my turrets cope with it more or less.
neither do I go east until 200,000 cells have passed, this is no less than 1/5 of the whole way)
I walk slowly, I build everything with my hands, without mods, a double-track railway with laser turrets for protection, I clean the space around with cannons, and with turrets I finish curious little animals)
By the way statistics on them

kills.png (69.85 KiB) Viewed 791 times

Here are more detailed statistics, I had to sacrifice myself)

kills2.png (47.96 KiB) Viewed 790 times

here you can see the number of hours played
4798 !!!
Who is bigger??

By the way, in a day you can get about 10,000 cells, with stripping, placement of guns and stations, for 100,000 you need about 10-15 days, for the total I have to go through 800,000 and kill several million more innocent animals)

This is if there are enough computer resources, or mine. Who will win ))
Thanks for attention. If you have questions - ask. But I do not advise to repeat my feat))))))))))))))))

ps - now I hope it is clear why I need such stocks of artillery shells?
by the way, it’s up to about 50 minutes to get to the mark of 200,000 in one direction, so you don’t come across a lot to the main base.

p.p.s. The territory around the main base is also open huge, approximately 25,000 x 14,000 cells, along the perimeter of itself guns and turrets.

I play this game not so long ago, somewhere from September-October 2018.
I want to tell you a little about the "scalability" of this game in relation to computer hardware

game loading time was indecently large, from several TENS minutes to an hour, and the record was up to TWO! hours These are real numbers.
The processor did not cope with packing and writing a zip file)

…I thought you couldn’t be right, but you have a 1.3GB save post-compression. I’m honestly impressed by how big that is, and not surprised you are having some issues there. Just reading that from main memory, discarding everything else, would be a noticeable amount of time on a benchmark despite being the “perfect” case for main memory reads - bandwidth is measured in multiples of that number, haha.

That is a heck of an impressive achievement, bringing it that far to the knees.

How can I be right
If I speak about "several" hours - it means more than two hours and further)
I saw the record for two hours personally, and this, with a zip file volume of much less than 600 MB, so if you extrapolate ....
Here is a small table:

table.jpg (48.44 KiB) Viewed 720 times

First, tell about the lower part
This is the very first computer, it is quite comfortable to play on it, even launching satellites, for example, with a zip file size of 10-20-40-100 MB
Above, problems with the lack of both memory and processor performance are already beginning.
The result in the table is the download of the test file test0105 with the size of 661 MB
As you can see, it was even successfully loaded, for a little more than an hour , 1 h 6 min? probably?
I am more than sure that if I clicked "save", I would not have written this text soon, I think it would take about three hours, not less
The game even started, but the FPS / UPS fell to 0.8-1 units )))))))) Alas, I made a screenshot, but did not save it, I do not want to repeat this feat)

Now over the top of the table.
This is the last but one reincarnation with an i5-6400 CPU @ 2.70GHz processor and different amounts of memory.
(factorio-current. log of all tests is available if interested)
Tests were carried out with a non-overclocked processor at a frequency of 2.7 GHz and a test0105 file with a size of 661 MB
As you can see, even with 4 GB of memory, the game was loaded, but in 484 seconds, this is 8 minutes , and an average of 30-40 seconds.
With the current file at 1.3 GB, the download feels like 40-50 seconds, the record is about a minute. My autosave is set every 20 minutes
With the latest configuration @ 4.1 GHz \ 32GB of memory, I did not conduct tests, but if you wish, you can spend some time at the expense of the game

haha. but I think I misspoke: I thought "that can't be why", not "that didn't happen". and I was wrong.

Seriously, though, just reading through the zip data in memory to decompress is gonna take at least, like, 1/12th of a second or more even on the latest hardware. That doesn't count writing it back out, or actually decompressing it, or anything.

The size of the base can be indirectly judged by the size of the game save file.
So, I didn’t disappear anywhere, and during this time I continued to slowly and systematically move forward with my goal - to reach the edge of the map without any mods and systematically destroying all living creatures along the way
The previous mark was 200,000 cells (meters, kilometers ?? ) and the save file was some kind of insignificant 600-700 Mb, that's right, pah, nothing!
There is a much later screenshot at 333,333 cells, the game was eating 22 GB of RAM, this is also very, very LITTLE!
at the 433,000 mark, I also probably took a screenshot to see how much memory went into the path of 100,000 cells, according to my calculations, approximately +3 GB
In general, at around 500,000 kilometers the game "ate" used 31.5 GB of RAM from 36 GB of installed memory available at that time (four memory slots 16 + 8 + 8 + 4)
And please note this on the original vanilla version 0.16.51
Having extrapolated the results, I came to the conclusion that in order to reach the mark of 999,999 I need at least +15/18 GB of memory), that is, about 48 GB of RAM )))))))))
But then finally I decided to finally switch to version 0.17, although this is still a beta. I’ve been playing 0.17.66 for the last few days, I haven’t gone back, I already found a few errors, maybe I'll write a bug report later.
So here. Some more statistics)
My last save at 0.16.51 was 1847115124 bytes in size, or 1.71 GB - this was the last time 08/27/19
In the .017 version, the game was slightly optimized, at the moment the save file takes 1.25 GB on disk, and RAM now requires 25.5 GB, all at the same mark of 500,000+ cells.
I didn’t move further, I decided at this point to clear a small territory and build from ZERO! new base. To do this, I left all the inventory and equipment on the edge of this site and in the middle of it I build a new base. Starting with a pickaxe, coal and stone stoves and coal electricity In these three days I have already built a nuclear power plant, as always modular for 8 reactors
I also launched the current game on a computer with a Pentium G4560 processor Kaby Lake @ 3500MHz ($ 80) +8 GB of memory - a very sad sight: ((-fps / ups = 6 - 8
If you add a +4 bar and a total volume of 12 GB, you can play more or less, 40-48 UPS \ FPS (((
upd:
Yes, I forgot to add
With 12 GB of memory and the G4560 processor loading the game is about 5-10 minutes, but recording the same game is 47 minutes !!!
On my i5-6400 @ 4555 all this is much faster, but I feel that by the end of the year I will have to change the processor to a more productive